Park con­sent pend­ing

PLANS to in­stall ar­ti­fi­cial turf on Fowlds Park have moved into the next stage.

Auck­land Coun­cil has ap­plied for re­source con­sent for its plan to up­grade Fowlds Park in Mt Al­bert.

The Al­bert-Eden Lo­cal Board has en­dorsed a con­cept plan for the park, on Western Springs Rd, which in­cludes build­ing ar­ti­fi­cial turf on the ex­ist­ing up­per field and net­ball courts, and in­stalling six new 17m high flood­lights.

A re­tain­ing wall will also be built on a lower field to sup­port the turf.

Fowlds Park is one of eight re­serves in the Al­bert-Eden area to be up­graded over the next 10 years as part of Auck­land Coun­cil’s $190 mil­lion Sports Field Ca­pac­ity De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme.

The area has one of the largest short­falls in sports field ca­pac­ity in Auck­land.

Board chair­man Peter Haynes says the up­grade will ben­e­fit the rugby league and soft­ball clubs who are based at the park.

‘‘It also eases pres­sure else­where in the sports field net­work and so should ben­e­fit play­ers across our area,’’ Haynes says.

Neigh­bours of the park ob­jected to the turf as they fear some users will be shut out and ex­ist­ing prob­lems with noise, traf­fic and an­ti­so­cial be­hav­iour will get worse as more peo­ple are drawn to use the fa­cil­ity.

Haynes says he hopes more use of the park will lead to less of this type of be­hav­iour.

The re­source con­sent ap­pli­ca­tion was orig­i­nally lodged in March but the plan­ner re­quested more in­for­ma­tion from the coun­cil.

Auck­land Coun­cil cen­tral re­source con­sents man­ager Mark White says if there are no fur­ther re­quests for in­for­ma­tion then a hear­ing will be held af­ter public sub­mis­sions close on July 13.

‘‘At the hear­ing the ap­pli­cant and the sub­mit­ters, along with the rel­e­vant spe­cial­ists rep­re­sent­ing both par­ties, will have the op­por­tu­nity to present their case to the Hear­ings Panel,’’ White says.